


The Real Me

by Miraculous Mumma (Andromedanewton)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Stubborn Marinette Dupain-Cheng, desperate adrien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 17:44:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20439980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromedanewton/pseuds/Miraculous%20Mumma
Summary: When Adrien asks Marinette out in front of the entire class, the last thing he was expecting was straight up no...





	The Real Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hi All!
> 
> So it was brought to my attention by the lovely @jeni2727 that I didn't post this on Ao3, just Tumblr! So here it is!
> 
> Just FYI, my court case with my husband starts with a first meeting on Monday 9th September, but before that the girls go back to school and I get to test out cars that will fit my new electric wheelchair! Because who wants a quiet life, amirite?!?

The entire class looked on in silence.Lessons for the week were done, everyone was packing up and talking about their plans, which was when Adrien got out of his seat, turned to Marinette, and said the words that had them all now staring at the interaction.

‘So, would you go out with me?’

It was like a match on the smallest tennis court, eyes darting between the two of them as they waited for her reply.This was the culmination of all these years of Marinette crushing and Adrien being oblivious to both that and his own feelings.This was the big moment.

Marinette continued packing her bag without even glancing up at him.It was only when Alya yelped; ‘Girl!’; at her that she took a breath, looked up at Adrien without a single emotion on her face, and simply stated; ‘No thanks.I’m good.’And, without saying another word, she sidestepped around him, shouldering her bag as she went, leaving the entire class even more speechless than they had been.

Adrien was well aware of all eyes on him and, once the shock passed, he gave a laugh of pure embarrassment.‘I actually should have expected that.’And with no other explanation, he headed out of the door at the closest he could get to a run without actually doing so.

‘Marinette!’

Marinette ignored the call from behind her as she walked rapidly towards the crosswalk to her home.She wasn’t in the mood to listen to his excuses or his apologies.She wasn’t in the mood for him to beg her to hear him out.She just wasn’t in the mood for Adrien Agreste whatsoever.

‘Marinette, come on!’

She could tell he was closer, definitely going at a faster pace than her, but that was fine.If he caught up with her she would give him what for, even though she had hoped to avoid him for just a couple of days.

‘Bugaboo, please.’He caught up with her, sensibly keeping his hands to himself, but she spun on him just the same, giving him a blue-eyed glare that he was far more used to seeing surrounded by red and black spots.

‘Please nothing!’She snapped.‘I have been pining over you for the last three years and suddenly, when you find out the truth, _now_ you want to know me as more than just a friend?No.This is not going to happen.At least, not the way you want it to!’

Adrien could only watch wide eyed and open mouthed as she rebuffed him yet again.She was mad at him, he knew she was, but he honestly thought asking her out in front of their class would work.That it would prove to her how serious about he was both in and out of their suits.Boy, was he wrong.

While he struggled for an answer, Marinette was finished, and she turned her back on him, taking the final few steps into the patisserie behind her before slamming the door and leaning on it heavily.

‘Rough day at school, sweetie?’Sabine asked from where she was serving a customer.

Marinette sighed as she pushed away from the door and dragged herself past the counter, towards the door through to their apartment.‘No, school was fine.’

‘Do you want a snack?’

‘Sure.’She grabbed two cookies off a tray and disappeared through the door.

‘Sounds like a boy problem.’The customer said knowingly.

‘I don’t know.’Sabine frowned.‘That kind of look is normally a Bourgeois problem.’

Marinette dropped her bag on the floor of her room and flopped face down on her chaise, flipping off her shoes in the process.Pulling the cushions into her face she screamed, angry at herself for having let this get to her.

When they discovered one another’s identities they were both shocked, closely followed by Adrien being delighted and Marinette being, well, pretty insulted actually.It hit her harder than she could ever have imagined, finding out that Adrien was Chat Noir, that he had flirted with her so heavily when in costume, but out of it?Out of it she had been placed so firmly in the friendzone that it quickly warped into the ‘just-a-friend-zone’, which was somehow worse.And now they knew he suddenly wanted to date her?That hurt, plain and simple.He wanted Ladybug, not Marinette, never mind that they were the same person.He wanted just a small part of her and had always rejected the rest of her.She didn’t want to be his no matter what.She wanted to be his because he loved every facet of her.To accept his request would lead to a lie, and she didn’t want that.

‘You know, Tikki,’ came her muffled voice, ‘if he had fallen for me as me and then this had been revealed then we wouldn’t have had any of these problems.The fact I’m Ladybug would just have been one hell of a bonus!The same for him!I genuinely like Chat Noir, not just hero worship like most of Paris do, but because I trust him with my life, and vice versa.The flirting bothered me a bit at first, but it soon just became a part of who he was.I would have been over the moon to learn Adrien was Chat Noir, it feels right that it’s him, but his sudden change in his affection towards me doesn’t!It feels forced, as though now I’m finally worthy of crawling out of the pit of just a friend and into his arms.Well, no.It’ll take more than that to win me over.I don’t know what, but something.’

‘I understand your point.’Tikki assured her from where she floated by her head.‘But you have to consider that asking you in both of your civilian guises is his way of showing you that he likes you both.’

‘It doesn’t feel like it.’She grumbled before sitting up and positioning herself crosslegged, passing a cookie to Tikki.‘It feels like to make things official he’s trying to prove a point, that he’ll put up with me being Marinette if it means he gets to be with me as Ladybug.’She folded her arms frustratedly.

‘That’s not what I did it for.’

Marinette squealed in surprise at the third voice in the room, her arms flailing so hard she fell off the chaise and onto the floor behind it.Looking towards her skylight to the roof she saw the unmistakable face of Chat Noir, upside down and peering at her apologetically.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.’He smiled slightly.

‘No, out, bad kitty!’She yelled as she stumbled to her feet.‘I will spray you with water, hit you with a broom, whatever it takes to get you out of here!!!’

‘The only thing that will get me out of here is you listening to me.’He said as firmly as he could with his throat tight with nerves and his voice trembling.

‘Then I guess you’re going to be here a long time.Make yourself at home!’She waved her arm at him and his smile widened, dropping down onto her bed and heading towards the ladder, in time to see her pulling at the hatch to leave her room.

‘Wait, wait, wait!’He flipped over the side of the bed and landed on the door surprisingly lightly for how suddenly he did so.‘Please, hear me out, Marinette.Please.Then if you’re not satisfied you can throw me out yourself.’

She folded her arms and glared at him.‘There’s nothing you can say that will convince me, so prepare yourself for the definitive proof about cats landing on their feet.’

‘Okay.’He huffed out a breath as he steeled his nerves.‘I don’t just want you because you’re Ladybug, and I’m sorry if that’s how it came across.’

‘How did you think that would ever be a good idea?’She stared at him in disbelief.‘You ask me out as soon as you find out I’m actually the person you have been flirting with for all these years?It makes me feel about an inch tall.There’s so much misplaced affection when you’re a hero that I thought you might understand!I want someone who sees me for me!’

‘I do see you for you!’

‘No!You know who I am, both sides of me, but one side was never good enough for you, the side you should have seen.’

‘That works both ways, you know?’He said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

She shifted her feet uncomfortably and unfolded her arms.‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re allowed to be yourself, you know who you are at home.You’re you.But I can’t do that.I can’t be me outside of the mask.I have to be perfect.’Marinette’s gut clenched as she saw the pain in his eyes but she couldn’t think of anything to say, so he continued‘The perfect model, the perfect student, the perfect son.I put this mask on and all bets are off.I’m free.I can run, I can laugh, no one cares what Chat Noir does, because he’s funny, and dashing, and carefree.All the things I’m not.So before you start accusing me of only loving one part of you…’

Chat fell silent when Marinette’s hands pressed against his cheeks the second before she kissed him.Her lips were a soft and gentle touch but they may as well have been on fire, the way they affected him.As well as being an efficient silencer they made his body roar with excitement, his head buzzing even as she broke the kiss and lowered her hands to his chest.

‘Maybe we’re both idiots in that respect.’She said in a hushed tone.‘Maybe we both need to take the time to learn about both sides of us.’

‘Can we…’Chat cleared his throat, surprised by how husky his voice sounded, ‘can we do that as a couple?’

‘I don’t see why not.’She gave him a warm smile, one she had never been able to offer him without it turning goofy and her cheeks red.

‘This is going to take some explaining at school.’

**Author's Note:**

> Liked it? Think I should continue it? Drop me a comment and let me know!


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